Ryan Phillippe and Abbie Cornish star in this drama about American soldiers and the Iraq War. Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Phillippe) is the leader of a squad that gets into a horrendous battle in Tikrit. Soon afterward, he and his pal Steve (Channing Tatum) return home to Brazos, Texas. Although King's enlistment contract is up, the military orders him back to Iraq under its stop-loss policy. Fed up, King goes AWOL and sets out on a road trip to Washington, D.C., and Steve's fiancée (Cornish) travels with him. A series of dramatic incidents occur on the cross-country journey.